The Future of Emusic: What I'd like to see

I've been an emusic.com subscriber since August 2001. Back then, you could download whatever you wanted, as much as you wanted for $9.95 per month. Unfortunately, there wasn't a ton of music on the site at the time. All you can eat isn't such a great deal if there's nothing on the buffet line. I kept hoping they'd add more labels, but the service was stagnating. Three or four years ago (I forget when) Emusic introduced the first version of their current tiered membership system. At the time, it was upsetting, and I briefly went on a subscription hiatus. For three or four months, perhaps longer, I didn't pay the monthly fee and didn't download anything. But I visited occasionally, to see if any more artists were being added. In fact, the new tiered system and more favorable revenue split invited an explosion of new Pitchfork-friendly indie labels (e.g., Merge, Matador, Kill Rock Stars).  Eventually I became an enthusiastic premium subscriber, greedily using my 90 downloads per month as soon as I got them. And each month there were more new artists than I could fit into my monthly allotment. Suffice it to say, I've purchased many a booster pack.

Late last year, Emusic changed their subscription plans once more, so that new users can only get 75 tracks for the premium subscription. Still only 19.95, it's an exceptional deal, with each song costing a bit more than 26 cents. Old subscribers were grandfathered in, so I still get 90 tracks for my 20 bux. But the difference is only about 4 1/2 cents per song. Cynics will point out Emusic's really trying to increase booster pack sales. I think that's probably true. The price of a "booster" track is now about double the price of subscription tracks: roughly 53 cents per track if you purchase the "best value" booster (30 tracks for $15.99). But that price is still favorable when you compare with iTunes (99 cents!).

The bottom line: I still think Emusic is an enormously good deal. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be better.

Emusic ignores social media

I've always been an huge evangelist for Emusic. I invite people to join and happily answer questions about the service. But it wasn't until recently that some of my good friends actually took me up on my offer to join. When they did, I came face to face with Emusic's most glaring flaw. "How do I add you as a friend?" they asked me. The answer is more complicated than it should be. Emusic doesn't allow users to search for other users or locate existing users by entering their email address (like Netflix). In order to "friend" someone, you have to actually encounter your pal somewhere on the site. For example, my friend Elissa created a list of Houston artists available on Emusic. Then she posted on the HandsUpHouston message board with instructions on how to find the list and add her. Because she was the author of the list, I clicked on her name and added her to my friends. It should not be that hard.

The difficulty of adding friends is symptomatic of Emusic's larger failure to fully embrace social media. Emusic was initially a pioneer in "social" networking. Their innovative "neighbor" feature, which identifies other users who have similar music tastes to your own, actually predated sites like MySpace and Friendster. Like Netflix, Emusic was also an early adopter of user-generated reviews and playlists (including the "star" rating system). Encouraging users to learn about new music by meeting strangers with similar music tastes isn't a bad idea. Sites like Mog.com and Last.fm have validated the approach. But both of those sites also allow users to network the old fashioned way, by using the connections they've already made in real life (IRL). Emusic, meanwhile, has simply ignored the features which are now required to build user loyalty in the new age of startups.

The Netflix Example

Again, Netflix (which was actually an early partner with Emusic) is a valuable example. Netflix users aren't simply customers waiting for their movies to arrive. Nor do they merely write reviews or create insular lists of their favorite movies. Netflix is built around a central wellspring of customer information: their queue. Not only does Netflix track every movie in your future, they track your past too. But the real innovation is sharing. You can see the movies in your pal's queue and they can see yours. And you have access to your friends' recent ratings and recommendations. In fact, Netflix actively encourages users to interact with one another. Every time you visit your personal page, Netflix is giving you information about your friends. They even quiz you about which user liked this movie or hated that movie.

So what does Netflix get out of all that complicated programming work? Two things. First, any marketer will tell you that user queues, recommendations, and reviews are incredibly valuable. Research using a data set this large used to be nearly impossible, even if you paid for a massive survey. Now, Netflix gets this information for free. Better yet, they get paid instead! But the second benefit is even greater. By encouraging users to build their own movie clubs, Netflix ensures that users will be reluctant to leave the service for competitors. Once you've rated 500 movies, written a few reviews and added 20 or so friends, Blockbuster's nearly identical service doesn't look so attractive. Who wants to do all that work over again? Network effects in the house.

Tips for Emusic

So here, finally, are a few suggestions for how Emusic might further embrace social networking.

1. Make it easy to add friends. This is head-thumpingly obvious, and every other suggestion here depends on it. That being said, I can name a couple of other successful sites that still make it frustratingly difficult to connect with your pals in the simplest way possible. Who are your iTunes pals? What about your Amazon friends? Yeah, Emusic isn't the only site ignoring social media. But they're going to have to change their tune soon. Because iTunes showing signs of incorporating more "social" functions. And Amazon may soon (as early as March) open their own digital music store (free of DRM, just like Emusic). 
   
2. Leverage user data and set it free. Emusic already allows users to build their own Netflix-style queue. The Save for Later list allows users to make a note of albums and artists they want to download in the future. Emusic also tracks each user's download history. In fact, you can access anyone's download history whether you know them or not. The problem is that this information isn't easily accessible or shareable. Not only should you be able to add your friends, you've got to be able to see what they're downloading (subject to some reasonable privacy controls, of course). I want to see what my friends are downloading this month, and what they're saving for later. And vice versa! And I don't want to have to go looking for it either. Like netflix, I want Emusic to shove that info in my face every time I visit. While they're at it, Emusic should encourage users to share their lists on Myspace and other blogs. An Emusic widget that could be pasted anywhere would absolutely rock. Finally, let users download their history in .xls or .xml (I know I'm dreaming now).
   
3. Give labels and artists their own pages. One of the best things about Emusic is that they invite prominent music critics and artists to write reviews and create their own playlists. The Emusic Dozens list is a goldmine of information for anyone who wants new music recommendations from trusted sources. They should follow the Myspace example and take it one step further. Give artists and labels a platform from which they can communicate with users about new releases, tours, and other information. Let users "friend" their favorite musicians and labels. Those kind of two-way interactions create exactly the kind of connections people can't easily abandon for the next new service.
4. Embrace the amateur musician. With recording equipment and software so cheap, people aren't just consumers anymore. They're making music and sharing it in all kinds of ways. Emusic should be one of those ways. Emusic should create a separate, but integrated community of amateur and small-ish musicians who can upload their own songs and promote their free downloads through the site. Again, why let sites like Last.fm, Mog.com and Myspace get all the traffic? Emusic is named for online, downloadable music. They're practically synonymous with high-quality, DRM-free tracks. They should use that respected brand to reach out for more of the market; to transform the market into a real community of invested users.

Well, those are my ideas for a site I truly love. With pundits predicting that the major labels will soon embrace DRM-free music, Emusic will be under pressure from increasingly sophisticated competition. As I pointed out above, Amazon is one of the heavyweights rumored to be preparing a digital download site. I don't think for a minute that Amazon, in building a new service from the ground up, is going to ignore the social media innovations of the last few Web 2.0 crazed years. Emusic has a limited window to put their house in order.